Claire Danes Has an Identity Issue

Claire Danes has an identity problem. Despite having a slew of movies and characters under her belt, she keeps getting called by the wrong name.

“People call me Carrie all the time,” Claire Danes said during a TimesTalks event in New York City. She is, of course, talking about Carrie Mathison. The character is the lead on Homeland, the Showtime series that Claire Danes has starred in for four seasons now.

It seems the only people who call her by her real name are the ones who shouldn’t be.

“Unless I’m doing a scene with another actor and then they tend to call me Claire! It’s all mixed up. I hope people are kind of flexible enough to appreciate me in different contexts but I’ve got more lives in me.”

Claire Danes has received wide recognition for her portrayal of Carrie Mathison. The character has bipolar disorder, and the condition plays a part in the development of the story lines of some episodes.

Claire Danes is married to actor Hugh Dancy who plays Will Graham on the TV series Hannibal. The pair have a two-year-old son, Cyrus.

“Hugh and I say, we just want him to be an environmental engineer. We don’t know what that means but it sounds good and it sounds very, very, very far away from [a performance life],” she laughed. “The idea makes me nervous and if he’s interested then I will facilitate it but I’m not sure.”

As for Carrie Mathison, Claire Danes drops a few hints about the upcoming fifth season of Homeland, which is said to be based in Germany.

“I think the idea is that she’s left the CIA, she’s utterly disenchanted and isolated, and during those intervening years, she’s acquired an actual life, which she’s maybe never had before. That will be interesting, to see her in that context, to be in a relationship, to actually be committed to her child, to have friends.”